Unicorp sells retail centers for $263 million

Orlando-based Unicorp National Developments Inc. has sold six shopping centers, including five in Central Florida and one in Virginia, to San Diego-based Excel Realty Trust for $263 million.

Unicorp has been working with Excel for about 10 months on a deal for the centers, which were 96 percent leased.

The company sold the five Orlando-area retail centers, with 319,264 square feet combined, for about $102 million. Among the tenants in those centers — which include Dellagio and Bay Hill Fountains, both off Sand Lake Road — are Walgreen's, CVS, Fifth Third, Regions Bank, Fleming's, Cantina Laredo, Big Fin Seafood Restaurant, Jos. A Bank, and Ruth's Chris Steakhouse.

The deal also included mixed-use project in Richmond, Va., called West Broad Village.

Excel, a publicly traded real estate investment trust, or REIT, targets "value-oriented" community and power retail centers, neighborhood centers with supermarket anchors, and freestanding retail properties. Matt Romney, son of Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney, is vice president of the 3-year-old REIT.

Unicorp President Chuck Whittall said the sale was related to his company's financial preparations for undertaking a series of projects, including redevelopment of the 600-room Wyndham Orlando Resort, on International Drive at Sand Lake Road, and construction of I-Drive Live, an entertainment complex featuring a giant observation wheel, a Madam Tussauds Wax Museum and a Sea Life Aquarium.

The company also expects to break ground in early November on a 216-unit apartment complex near Windermere called Casa Mirella. And it plans to develop a high-end retail center on Sand Lake Road and a shopping center called Lakeside at Winter Park on U.S. Highways 17-92.

Whittall said the company, which developed Baldwin Park's town center in northeast Orlando, still owns about 50 retail centers in the region.